Chiltern Hundreds - Notice and Orders

Notice and Orders

An MP applies for the office to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who usually then signs a warrant appointing the MP to the crown position. The appointee holds the office until such time as another MP is appointed, or they apply to be released. Sometimes this can be a matter of minutes, as on an occasion when three or more MPs apply on the same day.

When an MP is appointed to the post by the Treasury which releases a public notice: "The Chancellor of the Exchequer has this day appointed to be Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern."

After the Speaker has been notified, the appointment and resulting disqualification is noted in the Vote and Proceedings, the Commons' daily journal of proceedings:

Notification, laid upon the Table by the Speaker, That Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer had today appointed, Member for, to the office of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern.

Thereafter, the former MP's party (or the Government if they were independent or their party has no other MPs) moves for a writ of election to be issued calling for a by-election. The resulting order is in the following form:

Ordered, That Mr. Speaker do issue his Warrant for the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new writ for the electing of a Member to serve in this present parliament for the of in the room of the, who since election for the said County Constituency has accepted the Office of Steward or Bailiff of Her Majesty's Three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham in the County of Buckingham.